LEGISLATION FOR FAIRS IN ENGLAND.
_Duration of Fairs._ 1328. There was enacted 2 Edwᵈ. III. c. 15. “No
person shall keep a Fair longer than he ought to do,” which was as
follows:
Item, it is established That it shall be commanded to all the sheriffs of
England & elsewhere, where need shall require to cry and publish within
Liberties & without, that all the Lords [of the soil] wʰ have Fairs,
be it for yielding certain Ferm [Rent?] for the same to the King or
otherwise, shall hold the same for the time that they ought to hold it,
& no longer; that is to say, (1) such as have them by the King’s Charter
granted them, for the time limited by the sᵈ Charters (2) and also they
that have them without Charter, for the time that they ought to hold them
of Right. (3) And that every Lord at the beginning of his Fair shall
there do cry & publish how long the fair shall endure, to the intent that
merchants shall not be at the same Fairs over the time so published,
upon pain to be greviously punished towards the King (4) Nor the sᵈ Lords
shall not hold them over the due Time upon pain to seize the Fairs into
the King’s hands, there to remain till they have made a fine to the King
for the offence, after it be duly found, that the Lords held the same
Fairs longer than they ought, or that the merchants have sitten above the
time so cried & published. See 1331.
1331. The 5 Edw. III. c. 5—“The Penalty if any do sell Ware at a Fair
after it is ended” was as follows:
_Item_, Where it is contained in the statute made at Northampton [1328]
... that the Lords wʰ have Fairs by Charters or otherwise, shall hold
them during the Time that they ought to do, & no longer upon Pain to
seize such Fairs into the King’s hands (2) & that every Lord at the
Beginning of his Fair _shall proclaim how long the fair shall endure_;
(3) and in the same Statute is no certain punishment ordained against
the merchants if they sell after the time, (4) it is accorded, That the
sᵈ merchants after the sᵈ time shall close their Booths & Stalls without
putting any manner of Ware or Merchandise to sell there. (5) And if it be
found, that any merchant from henceforth sell any Ware or merchandise at
the sᵈ Fairs after the sᵈ Time, such Merchant shall forfeit to me Lord
the King the double value of that wʰ is sold (6) and every Man that will
sue for our Lord the King, shall be received, & shall have the fourth
part of that wʰ shall be lost at his suit.
Macpherson [“Hist. of Commerce”] commenting upon this act says _Fairs
were “the seats of most of the inland trade of the kingdom.”_
1448. The 27 Henry VI. c. 5 was directed against “the scandal of holding
Fairs & markets on Sundays & upon High Feast Days.” This practice had in
earlier times been very general.
_Attempted Limitation of the Commerce of Fairs._—1487. The Common Council
of London, in order to oblige the people to resort to the City for their
purchases, had made an ordinance that no citizen should carry goods for
sale to any fair or market out of the city. The assortment of goods in
London (says Macpherson) appears to have been so commanding that those
interested in fairs of Salisbury, Bristol, Oxford, Cambridge, Nottingham,
Ely, Coventry, and other places, and also the people of the country in
general, were alarmed, and represented to Parliament the destruction of
the fairs, and the great hardship of being obliged to travel to London to
procure chalices, books, vestments, and other church ornaments, and also
victuals for the time of Lent, linen cloth, woollen cloth, brass, pewter,
bedding, osmond, iron, flax, wax, and other necessaries. The London
ordinance was thereupon annulled by Parliament; and the citizens were
permitted to go with their goods to the fairs and markets in every part
of England. (“Hist. of Com.” i. p. 708.)
The act by which this was effected is 3 Hen. VII. c. 9—_Freemen of London
may carry their wares to any Fairs or Markets_—which recites as follows:
“Humbly showen and prayen unto your Highness, your true & faithful
Commons of this your Realm of _England_, That where the Citizens &
Freemen of the City of London have used out of time & mind to go, carry &
lede their merchandise & ware unto all Fairs & markets at their Liberty
of the sᵈ City; now of late time the Mayor, Aldermen, & Citizens of the
City of _London_ have made & enacted an Ordinance within the same City,
upon a great Pain, that no man that is a freeman or a Citizen of the
sᵈ City shall go or come to any Fair or Market out of the same City of
London, with any manner of ware or merchandise to sell or to barter, to
this Intent, that all Buyers & merchants should resort to the sᵈ City
to buy their ware & merchandises of the sᵈ Citizens & Freemen of London
aforesaid, because of their singular Lucre & Avail; wʰ Ordinance, if it
should hold as is before expressed, _shall be to the utter destruction
of all other Fairs & markets within this your Realm_, wʰ God defend:
for there be many fairs for the common weal of your said liege People,
as at _Salisbury_, _Bristol_, _Oxenforth_, _Cambrigge_, _Netyngham_,
_Ely_, _Coventre_, & at many other places _where Lords Spiritual, &
Temporal, Abbots, Priors, Knights, Esquires, Gentlemen, & your said
Commons of Every Country hath their common resort, to buy & purvey many
things that be good & profitable_, as Ornaments of Holy Church, Chalice,
Books, Vestments, & other ornaments of Holy Church aforesᵈ, & also for
Household, as victual for the time of Lent, & other stuff, as Linnen
Cloth, Woollen Cloth, Brass, Pewter, Bedding, Osmonde, Iron, Flax, &
Wax, & many other necessary Things, the wʰ might not be forborn amongst
your said liege People; but, by the sᵈ Ordinance every man willing to buy
any of the premisses, shall be courted to come to the sᵈ City of London,
to their importable Costs & Charges, wʰ if the sᵈ act should endure,
shall grow great hurt & prejudice to the common weal of this your Realm,
& shall cause many pernicious strifes & debates between your said liege
people, & the said Mayor, Aldermen & Citizens in time to come, by the
making the sᵈ Ordinance, the wʰ is thought may not continue & stand with
good charity, the premisses considered, wherefore it may please your said
Highness most noble & abundant Grace, in consideration of the Hurt likely
to grow of & by the premises, that it may be enacted:
The King Lords and Commons therefore enacted that every freeman and
citizen of London then or thereafter, might go with his victual ware or
merchandise, at his or their liberty to any fair or market that should
please him within the realm of England, any act, statute or ordinance to
the contrary notwithstanding. Any disregard of the statute to incur a
penalty of £10 to the king.
1496. The Company of Merchant-Adventurers of England which was said to
have been in existence for nearly two centuries—although not actually
chartered until 1505—took steps about this period calculated to interfere
with the freedom of British merchants to attend fairs and marts in
foreign countries.
The merchants who traded on their own individual account residing in
various parts of England and of the City of London, sent up a petition
to the House of Commons, (as against the claims of the said Company of
Merchant-Adventurers) wherein it was set forth that they traded beyond
the sea with their goods and merchandise, as well into Spain, Portugal,
Bretagne, Ireland, Normandy, France, Seville, Venice, Dantzic, Eastland,
Friseland and many other parts—the geography is often a little hazy in
these early documents—there to buy and sell and make their exchanges,
according to the laws and customs of those parts: every one trading as
seemed most to his advantage, without sanction, fine, imposition or
contribution, to be had or taken of them, or any of them, to for, or by,
any English person or persons. And in like sort they, before this time
had used, and of right ought to have and use the like commerce into the
coasts of _Flanders_, _Zealand_, _Holland_, _Brabant_, and other adjacent
parts, under the obedience of the Archduke of Burgundy; in which places
are usually kept the universal marts or fairs, four times in the year;
to which marts all Englishmen, and divers other nations in times past,
have used to resort, there to sell their own commodities, and freely to
buy such merchandise as they had occasion for: till now of late, the
Fellowship of Mercers, and other merchants and adventurers, dwelling and
being free within the City of London by confederacy amongst themselves,
for their own singular profit, contrary to every Englishman’s liberty,
to the liberty of the said mart there, and contrary to all law, reason,
charity, right and conscience have made an ordinance among themselves to
the prejudice of all other Englishmen, that no Englishman resorting to
the said mart, shall either buy or sell any merchandise there, unless he
shall first have compounded and made fine with the said Fellowship of
Merchants of London, at their pleasure; upon pain of forfeiture to the
said Fellowship of such their said merchandise. Which fine, imposition,
and exaction, at the beginning, when first taken, was demanded by colour
of the _Fraternity of St. Thomas Becket_; at which time it was only
an old noble sterling. And so by colour of such feigned holiness, it
hath been suffered to be taken of a few years past: it was afterwards
increased to 100 shillings, Flemish; but now the said Fellowship of
London take of every Englishman or young merchant, being there, at his
first coming £40 sterling for a fine, to suffer him to buy, and sell his
own goods. By reason whereof, all merchants not of the said Fellowship,
do withdraw themselves from the said marts: whereby the woollen cloth of
this realm, which is one of the greatest commodities of the same, as well
as sundry other English commodities of the same, as well as sundry other
English commodities, are not sold and got off as in times past, but are
for want of sale thereof, in divers parts, where such clothes are made,
conveyed to London, and there sold at an undervalued price, even below
what they cost the makers. Moreover the merchandise of those foreign
parts, imported by the said Fellowship, is sold to your complainants and
other subjects at so high a price that the buyers cannot live thereupon;
by reason whereof all the cities and towns of the realm are falling into
great poverty, ruin and decay: and the King’s customs and subsidies, and
the navy of the land greatly decreased.
It was therefore enacted (12 Hen. VII. c. 6) that all Englishmen from
henceforth should and might freely resort to the Coasts of _Flanders_,
_Holland_, Zealand, Brabant, and other parts adjoining, under the
obedience of the Archduke; and at their marts or fairs there, sell their
merchandise freely, without exaction, fine, imposition, or contribution
taken or received of any of them by the said Fraternity or Fellowship,
excepting only the sum of ten marks [£6 13_s._ 4_d._] sterling, on pain
of forfeiting £20 for every time they take more; and shall also forfeit
to the person so imposed on ten times so much as contrary to this act was
taken of him. See 1554.
_Welsh Fairs._—1534. There was enacted 26 Hen. VIII. c. 6—_The Bill
concerning Councils in Wales_—which recited: “Forasmuch as the people of
_Wales_, & the marches of the same, not dreading the good & wholesome
Laws & Statutes of this Realm, have of long time continued & persevered
in Perpetration & Commission of divers & manifold Thefts, Murthers,
Rebellions, wilful Burning of Houses & other scelerous Deeds & abominable
malefacts, to the high displeasure of God, Inquietation of the Kings
well-disposed subjects, & Disturbance of the Public Weal, wʰ malefacts &
scelerous Deeds be so rooted & fixed in the same People, that they be
not like to cease unless some sharp correction & Punishment for Redress &
Amputation of the Premises be provided, according to the Demerits of the
offenders.” Whereupon it was enacted (_inter alia_):
That no person or persons dwelling or resident within _Wales_ or the
Lordships marches of the same, of what Estate, Degree, or Condition
soever he or they be of, coming, resorting, or repairing unto any
Sessions or Court to be holden within _Wales_ or any Lordships, marches,
of the same shall bring or bear, or cause to be brought or born to the
same Sessions or Court or to any place within the distance of two miles
from the same Sessions or Court, nor to any Town, Church, _Fair_, Market
or other congregation, except it be upon a Hute or Outcry made of any
Felony or Robbery done or perpetrated, nor in the Highways in affray
of the King’s Peace, or the Kings liege People, any Bill, Long-bow,
Cross-bow, Hand-gun, Sword, Staff, Dagger, Halbert, More-spike, Spear, or
any other manner of weapon, Proof-coat or Armour defensive, upon pain of
forfeiture of the same and of imprisonment and fine, except permission by
given by the proper authorities authorised thereto.
_Robberies in Fairs._—1552. The 5 and 6 Edw. VI. c. 9—_An Act for the
taking away of the Benefit of Clergy_ for certain offenders recites:
(3) “And where also it hath been in question & doubted, that if such
Robberies & Felonies happen to be committed & done in any Booth or
Booths, Tent or Tents in any Fair or market, the Owner of the same, his
wife, Children or Servants happening to be within the same at the time
of the committing of such Felonies, & put in fear & dread, the offenders
therein being found guilty after the Laws of this Realm, should not lose
the Benefit of Clergy.”
Whereupon it was enacted that persons so offending should not be entitled
to benefit of Clergy, but should suffer death in such manner and form as
was mentioned in the act 23 Hen. VIII. c. 1, for Robberies and Felonies
committed and done in Dwelling houses and Dwelling places, the Owner and
Dweller in the same, his wife children or servants being within the same,
and put in fear and dread, without having any respect or consideration
whether the owner or dweller in such booths and tents his wife, children
or servants being in the same Booths or Tents at the time of such
Robberies and Felonies committed, shall be sleeping or waking.
_Restricting the dealing in Fairs._—1554. By the 1st and 2nd Philip and
Mary, c. 7—_An Act for that Persons dwelling in the Country shall not
sell divers Wares in Cities or Towns Corporate by retail_—it is recited:
Where before this time the ancient Cities, Boroughs, Towns Corporate and
market Towns (within this Realm of _England_) have been very populous,
and chiefly inhabited with merchants, Artificers, and Handicraftsmen,
during which time the Children in those Cities were civilly brought up
and instructed, and also the said cities &c. kept in good order and
obesience, and the inhabiters of the same well set on work and kept from
idleness. (2) By reason whereof, the said Cities &c. did then prosper
in riches and great wealth, and were as then not only able to serve and
furnish the King and Queens majesties, and their noble progenitors, Kings
of this Realm, as well with great numbers of good able persons and well
furnished, meet for the wars, as also then charged, and yet chargeable
with great fee-farms, _Quindismes_, Taxes, and divers other payments to
the King and Queen’s Majesties, which at this present they be not able
to pay and bear, but to their utter Undoing, being few in number to pay
and bear the same; but also the same Cities &c. are likely to come very
shortly to utter destruction, ruin and decay; (3) by reason whereof
the occupiers, Linendrapers, woollen-drapers, Haberdashers and Grocers
dwelling in the Counties out of the said Cities &c. do not only occupy
the art and mystery of the said Sciences in the places where they dwell
and inhabit, but also come into the said Cities &c. and there sell their
wares, and take away the Relief of the inhabitants of the said Cities &c.
to the great decay and utter undoing of the inhabitants of the same, if
speedy reformation therein be not had in time convenient. (4) For remedy
whereof and for the better amendment of the said Cities &c. to the end
that the same Cities &c. may be better able to pay the said Fee-farms,
and also to bear the other ordinary charges within the same Cities &c.
and to furnish the King and Queen’s majesties with numbers of able
persons, like as they have heretofore done in times past, in times of
War.
It was enacted, That any person or persons which do now inhabit and
dwell, or hereafter shall inhabit and dwell in the Country anywhere, or
County within this Realm of _England_, out of any of the said Cities,
Boroughs, Towns Corporate or Market Towns, from and after the Feast of
St. _Michael_ the archangel next coming, _shall not sell or cause to be
sold by retail_, any woollen cloth, Linen Cloth, Haberdashery wares,
Grocery wares, Mercery wares, at or within any of the said Cities &c., or
within the Suburbs or Liberties of the said Cities, &c., within the said
Realm of England (_except it be in open Fairs_) upon pain of forfeiting
6_s._ 8_d._ and the whole Wares so sold, proffered and offered to be sold
contrary to the form and intent of this act as above is said. But all
such persons might sell their products wholesale; and persons dwelling
in the Country, but afterwards becoming free of any City &c. would be
thus placed outside the operation of this act. And persons might sell
by retail all manner of Cloth, Linen or Woollen of our making anywhere
notwithstanding this act. “Provided alway that this act or anything
therein contained shall not be prejudicial or hurtful to the Liberties
and Privileges of the Universities of _Cambridge_ and _Oxford_, or either
of them.”
_Horse Fairs._—1555. The 2 and 3 Philip and Mary, c. 7 related to the
facilities for dealing in stolen horses, which it was attempted to check
by having duly appointed fairs for such dealings. This Act gave rise to
the holding of “Horse Fairs” separately from other fairs. The Act 31 of
Elizabeth c. 12 (1589) required a record to be kept of all horses sold
at fairs.
_Plague._—1625. The importance rightly attached from a sanitary point of
view to the gathering of large multitudes together at fairs is manifested
in a very ample degree in a Royal Proclamation issued by Charles I. from
his Palace at Woodstock on the 4th August:
The Kings most excellent majesty, out of his Princely and Christian care
of his loving subjects, that no good means of Providence may be neglected
to stay the further spreading of the great infection of the Plague,
doth find it necessary to prevent all occasions of public concourse of
his people for the present, till it shall please Almighty God of His
goodness, to cease the violence of the Contagion which is very dispersed
into many parts of the Kingdom already; _And therefore remembering that
there are at hand two Fairs of special note and unto which there is
usually extraordinary resort out of all parts of the Kingdom_, the one
kept in Smithfield, near the City of London, called Bartholomew Fair, and
the other near Cambridge called Stourbridge Fair, _the holding whereof at
the usual times would in all likelihood be the occasion of further danger
and infection in other parts of the land_, which yet in Gods mercy stand
clear and free, hath, with the advice of his Majesty’s Privy Council,
thought good, by this open declaration of his pleasure and necessary
commandment, not only to admonish and require all his loving subjects to
forbear to resort for this time to either of the said two fairs, or _to
any other fairs within 50 miles of the said City of London_, but also to
enjoin the Lords of the said Fairs, and others interested in them, or
any of them, that they all forbear to hold the said Fairs, or anything
appertaining so them, at all times accustomed or at any time, till by
God’s goodness and mercy the infection of the Plague shall cease, or be
so much diminished, that his majesty shall give order for holding them;
upon pain of such punishment as, for a contempt so much concerning the
universal safety of his people, they shall be adjudged to deserve, which
they must expect to be inflicted with all severity: His Majesty desire
being so intentive for preventing the general Infection threatened, as
he is resolved to spare no man that shall be the cause of dispersing the
same. And to that purpose doth hereby further charge and enjoin, under
like penalty, all citizens and inhabitants of the said City of London,
_that none of them shall repair to any fair held within any part of his
kingdom_, until it shall please God to cease the infection now reigning
amongst them: His Majesty’s intention being, and so hereby declaring
himself, that no Lord of any Fairs, or others interested in the profits
thereof, shall by this necessary and temporary restraint, receive any
prejudice in the right of his or their Fairs, or liberties thereunto
belonging, anything before mentioned notwithstanding.
Earlier proclamations and orders had prevented the holding or had
curtailed the period of St. Bartholomew fairs on several occasions viz.
1348, 1593, and 1603; and other fairs had likewise been stayed or
postponed. These will be noticed in dealing with such fairs specifically.
1630. The Plague was prevailing in Cambridge, and a Royal Proclamation
was issued, dated Aug. 1, prohibiting the holding of the “three great
Fairs of special note, unto which there is an extraordinary resort from
all parts of the Kingdom” viz. those of Bartholomew, Sturbridge, and
Southwark.
_Coinage._—1662. The preceding year was that of the Restoration, and it
was by Proclamation ordered that the coinage of the Commonwealth should
be no longer current than the last day of November. The “Kingdom’s
Intelligencer” for Aug. 22-25 this year contained the following:
“Whitehall Aug. 23. There hath been a discovery of divers persons who
have coined both gold and silver, and of other persons who have vended
the same in great quantities &c. intending to utter the same to Clothiers
and at Fairs; which is published to an end that honest persons may not be
deceived by receiving such monies.”
_Sale of Printed Matter, &c._—1698. In the 9 and 10 William III. c.
27—_An Act for Licensing Hawkers and Pedlars_ &c. section 9 is as
follows: Provided always.... That this Act or anything contained
shall not Extend to Prohibit any persons from selling of any Acts of
Parliament, Forms of Prayer, Proclamations, Gazettes, licensed Almanacks
or other Printed Papers, licensed by authority, or any Fish, Fruits or
Victuals; nor to hinder any person or persons, who are the real workers
or makers of any Goods or Wares within the Kingdom of _England_,
Dominion of _Wales_, and Town of _Berwick_ upon _Tweed_, or his her or
their Children, Apprentices, Agents or Servants, to such real Workers and
makers of such Goods or Wares only, from carrying abroad, exposing to
Sale, or selling any of the said Goods and Wares of his, her, or their,
own making in any Public Mart, Fairs, Markets, or Elsewhere; nor any
Tinkers, Coopers, Glaziers, Plummers, Harness-menders, or other persons
actually trading in mending kettles, Tubs, Household Goods or Harness
whatsoever, from going about and carrying with them proper materials for
mending the same.
And by Section 12 it is further enacted: That nothing herein contained
shall extend or be construed to extend to hinder any person or persons
from Selling or exposing to sale any sorts of Goods or Merchandises,
in any public mart, Market, or Fair within the Kingdom of _England_,
Dominion of _Wales_ and Town of _Berwick_ upon _Tweed_, but that such
person or persons may do therein as they lawfully might have done before
the making of this act; anything herein contained to the contrary
notwithstanding.
_Altering the Calendar._—1751. Under 24 Geo. II. c. 23—_An Act for
Regulating the Commencement of the Year; and for correcting the Calendar
now in use_, it was provided Section 4 (_inter alia_) that the terms for
holding and keeping of all markets, fairs and marts, “whether for the
sale of Goods or Cattle, or for the hiring of Servants, or for any other
purpose, wʰ are either fixed to certain nominal days of the month, or
depending upon the beginning, or any certain day of any month, & all
Courts incident & belonging to, or usually holden or kept with any such
Fairs or Marts, should be holden & kept upon or according to the same
natural days upon or according to wʰ the same shᵈ have been so kept or
holden in case this act had not been made.”
This act was amended by 25 Geo. II. c. 30, which enacted that all such
events as before enumerated were to take place “according to the new
Calendar.”
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